MLive videos allow the Kalamazoo Gazette another way to deliver stories

Micki Rossio loves to runMicki Rossio runs because she can, and because she want to. She joins her daughter Hayley's Girls on the Run team to encourage running and and good health. Rossio plans to run a half marathon during the 2013 Borgess Run for the Health of it.

Tribal Chairman Matthew WesawMatthew Wesaw, tribal chairman of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, talks about the new Four Winds Casino Dowagiac.

Print readers of the Kalamazoo Gazette shouldn’t worry about our experimentation with video. We are not abandoning our bread-and-butter: in-depth reporting about important local issues.

Want news about what’s going on with the Kalamazoo city manager search, Portage superintendent search or the Palisades nuclear plant? No other local news source will give you the depth or breadth that the Kalamazoo Gazette and MLive.com/kalamazoo will provide.

But our use of video gives us another tool. It allows us to enhance our storytelling and present information in a powerful way that was not available to us before MLive was created.

On Tuesday, when Antonio Livingston testified at the trial of John Aguilar, who is charged with murder in the beating death of Kalamazoo antiques dealer Robert Medema, we were in the courtroom.

Reporter Rex Hall Jr. was there covering the story and photographer James Buck took pictures. But Buck also shot a 2-minute video of a key part of Livingston’s testimony where Livingston claims responsibility for Medema’s death.

The moment was important because at his own trial earlier this year, Livingston said Aguilar killed Medema.

While the story and pictures Hall and Buck produced were very good, the video clip gave the online user a whole other level of experience. Watching the video, you can listen to the prosecutor’s questions, hear Livingston’s answers and watch his facial expressions and body language as he explains to the judge why he changed his story.

Whether it’s witnesses at a murder trial or runners at our marathon, we are dedicated to delivering stories of Southwest Michigan in a variety of ways. Watch us.